The creators of Dishonored had this commission from Valve, but it was canceled before entering the final phase of development.
Half-Life's future is unknown. Beyond Half-Life: Alyx, the two episodes of the second part have not had (for now) continuity. Marc Laidlaw, a former Valve writing employee, has already confirmed that Half-Life 2: Episode 3 had not ended the story, but what about Half-Life 2: Episode 4? That project existed and was commissioned by Valve for Arkane Studios, known for their work on Dishonored. Now, we have been able to see several clips from that project.
What we know about Half-Life 2: Episode 4
The first thing to make clear is the timing. Arkane Studios was working on this title between 2006 and 2007, a period close to two years that ended with a cancellation by Valve. Always in secret, it was never publicly announced, but enough progress was made in the offices of the French company based in Lyon to establish a prototype shared on this occasion through the audiovisual documentary channel Noclip.
(4/7) pic.twitter.com/URBIzHhotn
– Noclip (@noclipvideo) May 20, 2020
Beyond the clips that we can see in the thread of Tweets they have published, this small preview of what will be their next great documentary (The (Untold) History of Arkane Studios) serves to give us an idea of what we will find … and presents a couple of additional images of that Half-Life 2: Episode 4 that we never played. In fact, there will be a section in the documentary focused on "video games you never played", because there is more than one project canceled within Arkane.
According to Laidlaw himself, this Episode 4 was to be placed just before the events narrated in Episode 2, specifically in the Ravenholm village in a state of maximum hostility: violent beings, zombies and a constant feeling of being at risk. In the absence of knowing what will happen to the Half-Life license in the future, what is certain is that Half-Life: Alyx has generated consensus among critics and the public: it is an outstanding video game.
References | Polygon, Noclip
